As teachers engage with what is taught, rather than a sense of the distribution of inert knowledge, there can be a feeling that the "what" is moving and adapting with them. This is especially true when teachers are working with topics like anti-Black racism. The what being taught, or the curriculum-as-a-whole has been analyzed by cutting…

The current racial homogeny in the United States K-12 public school teacher workforce can be traced to the dismissal of Black teachers and administrators in the name of desegregation following the 1950s supreme court Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. The resulting raciodemographic mismatch persists today, and determinations about the…

This project investigates the relationship between joy, critical consciousness, and critical civic learning that exist in critical hip hop pedagogy. In order to discover what is revealed about young people's collective definitions of joy, critical consciousness, and civic identity/literacy, I designed a methodology called Blackout Rap…

This dissertation explores everyday interactions and opportunities for teachers and families to collaborate in spite of forces that often put Black families and schools at odds in one predominantly Black elementary school. I examine interactions among Black families and teachers to consider how organizational norms, values, and routines influence…

This interpretive qualitative study examined what the college decision-making process of African-Americans enrolled in Historically White Institutions (HWIs) instead of Historically Black Colleges, and Universities (HBCUs) would reveal about their ontological assumptions about blackness and whiteness. The study was framed using Frantz Fanon's…

The purpose of this research was to study the link between the Black Power Movement and changes that occurred in higher education between 1960 and 1980. The main research question study was, "What effect did the Black Power Movement have on changes in higher education from 1960-1980?" The intent of this historical research is to…

Little attention has been given to the potential role of faith-based institutions in fostering academic achievement through socialization; the purpose of this study is to reveal that link. For many African American students, the public education system has not successfully prepared them for citizenry in today's global community. An urgent…